vengeance upon the fallen bodies of the enemy than the
Spaniards have.

It has been a common custom with them to disfigure, mangle and commit
nameless indignities upon the dead.

When Nestor Aranguren, who you will remember was one of the bravest of
the Cuban leaders, the "Marion," the "Swamp Fox" of the insurrection,
was killed, his body, covered with honorable wounds was taken to Havana,
and paraded before the citizens, subject to their jeers and curses.

When another insurgent leader, Castillo, was killed, the same frightful
spectacle was witnessed.

Indeed, it has been the rule among the Spaniards whenever the body of a
so-called rebel leader fell into their hands, to drag his nude and
mutilated body, tied at the end of a horse's tail, throughout the
nearest town, and the excuse for this was--what? That the body might be
fully identified.

Among the Cubans, there is only one instance related where they
retaliated in kind. And this was when it is said that they sent a
Spanish soldier back to Havana with his tongue cut out. But even this
story, the only act of brutality alleged against them is not well
authenticated, resting as it does entirely upon Spanish evidence. And we
know well how much credence can be given to that evidence.

To come down to more recent occurrences.

When it was first reported that the bodies of our marines killed at
Guantanamo were subjected to unmentionable mutilations by the Spaniards,
we could not believe it. It was said that the condition of the bodies
was caused by shots fired from the Mauser rifle. But the Mauser rifle
inflicts a clean cut hole. It could not possibly have been responsible
for the horrible condition of the bodies. It is impossible for us to
explain further in print. Remember or look up what was done by the
Apaches in some of our Indian wars, and then from your knowledge, or the
knowledge gained by research, fill up the hiatus.

And the Spaniards cannot claim in this latter instance, if indeed they
can in any other, that these barbarities were committed by irregular and
irresponsible troops. It is beyond question that by far the greater
portion of the troops employed against Colonel Huntington (we are
referring now to the affair at Guantanamo) belonged to the regular army,
under the command of General Linares.

The New York Herald, in an editorial on the subject, remarks most justly
and forcibly: "What sort of a degraded spectacle, then, does Spain
present, goin